Chapter 100: Guide

In the chapel, Shirushu was having a prayer session with the children, I was leaning against the wall and looking at them from behind. Shirushu was praying earnestly, but, there was many amongst the children who were yawning, and it was evident that they were bored. There was also the half-beast boy Rui and he was completely passed out. He was just being scolded quite harshly a few moments ago, but now he’s already sleep, how should I put this, he’s quite strong, mentally at least.

Today, Shirushu, is going to be guiding us around town, that’s why I just decided to wait here. When I told Claude about it via telepathic communication, she said that she’ll depart as soon as preparations are done. I suppose within an hour they will be able to arrive here? Milly is probably still asleep so it might take a little more time.

But if Milly was to be in such a quiet space, she would probably fall back asleep. Thinking about these types of useless things, Shirushu seems to have finished her prayers so she stood up and walked towards me.

「I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.」

「I don’t really mind it, after all I have free time to spare.」

The children quickly ran outside going ahead of Shirushu. As expected they were having much more fun outside, it seems they’ve become much more energetic.

「By the way, how come I don’t see any adults around here?」

「In the past we have a reverend father, due to sickness he….」

「…….I see」

「Since I was a child, the reverend picked me up and raised me. Although, it’s not purely to repay his favor, I also wanted to look after the children…… But I can’t really do it that well」

Saying that, she breathes a big sigh. It’s true that they seem quite troublesome. Because I had free time until Milly came, I was just absentmindedly looking at the children play around and that’s when this one child suddenly fell over and began to cry. Although Rui is also there he just stood right in front of the fallen child, but he didn’t try to give a helping hand. Rui just stood in front of that child but he was just watching attentively.

「That’s not good….!」

Shirushu started running and immediately tried to sit in front of the crying child, but, Rui stood in front of her not allowing her to approach.

「Elder sis Sill, stop. This isn’t that big of a deal so don’t worry~」

「But he’s so pitiful…..」

「Even so, you can’t just pamper him, otherwise it won’t be good for him later you know?」

「He’s still just a small child! Mou! Rui you just stand over there!」

Shirushu gets angry and Rui looks hurt as he turned his face to the side.

「Fine I’ll go! Oi everyone, let’s go over there and play」

So he brought the other children and went to the other side…… Umu, they seem to be a lot of trouble.

「Nn mou…. Rui……」

Shirushu’s cheeks were puffed up, and I saw her taking some sort of leaf from a nearby plant that grew in the vicinity. Is that a medical herb used for a salve? When I looked around, I realized that they grew here and there. Was the Church growing these plants? Shirushu holds that leaf in her mouth, and clasping her hands in front of her chest, she shut her eyes and seemingly prayed. When she did this, magic began to gather in the leaf in her mouth.

「Elixir…..!」

Along with those words, she placed the shining leaf on the young boy’s wounds, and in an instant the wounds on his feet healed. Shirushu had a bit of sweat flowing down her forehead as she smiled gently at the child who had stopped crying.

(…..Is that her own inherent magical spell?)

Having my own doubts, I cast Scout Scope on Shirushu.

Shirushu Onslaught

Level 2

[Red] Magical Value: 0 Threshold Limit: 21

[Blue] Magical Value: 3 Threshold Limit: 42

[Green] Magical Value: 2 Threshold Limit: 51

[Sky] Magical Value: 0 Threshold Limit: 12

[Soul] Magical Value: 2 Threshold Limit: 39

Magical Power Level: 6/52

And the magic she possessed, Elixir. As expected it was an inherent magical ability. Other than this, Shirushu didn’t have any other magic. However, if she did train, she would probably be able to excel in Blue, Green and Soul magic. I went near Shirushu in order to ask her in more detail.

「What was that just now?」

「Ummm….. From what the reverend told me, it seems that I have some sort of inherent magic. I’ve been able to use it from as far as I can remember, so I don’t really understand it that well either….」

This ability of hers was probably born due to both her living environment and her own temperament, although this kind of thing is really rare, but I suppose that’s what must have happened to Shirushu.

「But that kind of wound, didn’t really need recovery magic to be casted on it, right? Just like Rui said, aren’t you being a little overprotective? Even if you just put some spit on it, that would have healed you know?」

「Well~…… But, after all, I felt so sorry for the child….」

「In my opinion, being kind and spoiling someone, is a different thing」

「Uuu……」

When I gave Shirushu my advice, Rui was grinning from a distance.

「Onii-chan, you’ve said something really good there! I told you so! Shirushu, you are spoiling him too much」

「You stay out of this, just go play over there!」

「Yeah, yeah」

Saying that the boy started to play with the children again. After talking for a little while longer with Shirushu, Milly and the others arrived at the church.

「Alright everyone, I’m going to be showing Zeph-san and the others around town so please take care of the house okay?」

「「「Yes~!」」」

「Then shall we go everyone?」

Following her lead, we went out of the church, and after walking for a little while, there was a bunch of old private houses lined up. Is this perhaps the slums? the appearance of the people around here also looks quite poor. Shirushu bows to each and everyone one of them and greets them. Responding to her greeting, these people bowed politely in return. It seems that she has the trust of the people in this part of town.

When we got out of the slums, we arrived at the downtown area we were eating in yesterday, she started to stand in front of the various shops and began to give a detailed explanation of each store. Basically her explanations consisted of “Someone told me this and that about this store”. But she didn’t seem to have any personal experience with the stores herself.

Before coming out of the downtown area, we got a little hungry so we decided to have a late lunch. As usual Shirushu was being reluctant and holding herself back, but when I shoved the chef’s recommended dish into her mouth by force, her face instantly melted and she made short work of the food. Is this perhaps a case of “even though her mouth says no, her body is honest?”

When our meal finished, we climbed over this big slope and there was plenty of large buildings around us. Many new and stylish houses were here. Is this perhaps where the rich people live in? There is a big park inside of their private houses, and I could see children playing inside. Many of the children were wearing beautiful clothes, there were even some beast children in the mix. Depending on the town there was usually some form of tension in regards to beast people, but it seems that in Port Izu this tension did not exist. Perhaps the town mayor was a talented person?

「This place seems really good.」

「Yes.」

Everyone stops walking and we saw this middle aged man walk into the park. He had neat and beautiful clothes and a moustache on his face. He dressed precisely like a nobleman would.

「Hello, Shirushu-san」

「I’ve been in your care, Davil-san」

The man called Davil seemed to be Shirushu’s acquaintance and he was walking slowly towards us. Shirushu was bowing politely to the man who was walking towards us with a smile. He seemed to have notices us so we also gave him a slight bow.

「Are these perhaps your friends? I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance. I am the Mayor of Port Izu, my name is Davil Kilhail」

「Davil-san is the person who aids our church by giving us money.」

「Shirushu-dono is a very kind person who is taking care of all the beast children that have been outcast, this is the least I can do to cooperate.」

Davil was smiling gently and the children from behind him comes running and clings to him.

「Papa!」

「There we go, hahaha」

Holding the child in his arms, he gave the child a piggyback ride and Shirushu was watching on with a warm smile. But as if he remembered we were still here, he showed a flustered expression.

「I’m sorry, Davil-san. I’m going to be showing these people around so….」

「Ahh, I don’t mind it. We can always talk next time」

Parting from Davil, we were brought along to the residential area.

「I’m sorry I ended up talking for quite a long time….」

「That’s alright, don’t worry, besides we have plenty of free time~」

「That seems kind of nice. That kind of scene from before…」

After saying this, Claude pulls on my sleeve.

「You think so? I thought Shirushu looked like his lover or something. Is that the kind of man you like? Claude?」

「….. Zeph-kun you baka」

I was teasing Claude, and suddenly Shirushu who started to walk awkwardly and her shoulders were shaking. Crap, did she overhear what I just said? After that, we walked a little more before we reached a Weapon and Protective gear shop lined across the road. Thankfully, by this time, Shirushu’s mood had already recovered.

「This is our last stop, after this everyone will surely be fine by themselves」

She was floating this really scary black smile. It would seem that she was still angry at my previous comment…

「However, in saying that I don’t think we have time to visit every place, so I have a shop I would like to recommend」

Shirushu went deeper into the interior of the shopping district, and we also followed behind her. In the corner of this narrow shopping street, there was this elderly person who wore glasses and was looking after this old and worn-out store. Shirushu stopped in front of this store.

「It’s quite a small store, but there are plenty of rare and unusual things here. …… it kind of tries to rip you off a little though」

「As if I rip people off! It’s a reasonable and fair price jya」

Shirushu was talking to me in a whisper, but the elderly person beat her butt with his cane. 2

When I went inside and checked out the goods, it was definitely overpriced…… and it wasn’t just a little bit, but this was pretty much ripping people off. However, if I were to just talk about the assortment of goods, they were of superb quality. Various kinds of rare boss items were lined up.

Uohh! A Snake Bone Ring costs 500,000 Rupi?! …….I wonder if I can sell mine? I probably won’t be using it anymore.

「Zeph, are you going to sell it? Even though it’s…. you know….」

Milly was fiddling with her finger as she spoke. The ring on my fourth finger, was the gift that Milly gave me in the past as a present.

「Ah…. Well umm….」

「If you want to sell it, I’ll buy it off you for 30,000 rupi jya」

「「That’s way too cheap!!」」

Both Milly and I synchronized in retorting to this geezer, and Lydia seems to have found something that caught her eye so she was rustling around the shelf reaching for something in the interior. What she pulled out was this rusty dust covered silver disk, is that perhaps a shield?

「Clau-chan, what do you think of this…..?」

「Ah……!」

Lydia was patted the dust off and handed the shield to Claude. Claude saw the shield and her eyes were staring in wonder. This was the shield that she got from her mother when she got chased out of her house; the one that was supposed to be destroyed in her fight against Grain. Or at least, it looked exactly the same.

Claude looks at the shield with a deep emotion and afterwards, she looked towards me.. I know you want it… Now that you mention it, I did promise her to buy a replacement for the shield that she lost.

「Is that the round shield? That particular shield costs 1 million Rupi jyana」

「…..Tsk, that’s so expensive」

「I-It’s fine Zeph-kun, you don’t have to do this for me…..」

Claude was calming me down, but she also looked kind of happy. The shield she got from her mother in the past cost this much, so I bet that she felt pretty good. However, this is really expensive. If I buy this, I will be pretty much broke, however…

「Geezer, I’ll buy it」

「Zeph-kun!?」

Claude was bewildered and I placed my hand on her head.

「I haven’t seen this type of shield around much before, so I think it’s probably a rare item. If it ever got sold, you may never be able to find one like this again….. Besides, isn’t this something that has sentimental value to you?」

「Zeph-kun I…..」

「In that case, come on, hurry up and pay the 1 million rupi」

This old geezer couldn’t read the atmosphere, I paid him the 1 million rupi and left the store. Being this broke, I’m going to have to earn some more money in order to provide Ain a consistent meal. After leaving the store, Claude embraces the shield I bought for her and was smiling happily.

「Ehehe, Thank you so much Zeph-kun」

「Ahh, I’m kind of envious of you, Claude」

「Milly-san, didn’t you make him buy you something for the punishment game? What happened during that time?」

「Uhh…..!」

At Claude’s question, Milly’s face instantly turns red.

「T-That is… umm, yes, ahaha」

「?」

Milly was being incoherent as she tried to dodge the question, and Claude was looking at her in marvel.

I wonder if that shopkeep is setting prices based on the customer’s apparent desire for the item and how much they look to have?
It kinda looks like it, the ring was marked up to less than 14x market price (assuming the market price was the quoted 30k) since Zen already had one of the rings he probably asked in a disinterested fashion but that he asked about the ring to begin with shows that he either knows soul magic (which normally requires mediums to use) or has peculiar taste, either of which typically shows the possession of a sizable sum of money, with the shield there was an obvious emotional response showing Claude’s desire to purchase and the link between Zen and Claude could be inferred so the shield was probably given some massive mark up (it’s silver but rusted so it’s probably just steel and it possess no special effect so it shouldn’t actually cost that much, especially when compared to the ring)